Samant Goel named R&AW chief, Arvind Kumar to head IB

Goel is an officer of the Punjab cadre and is currently second in command in R&AW, holding the post of special secretary. He has earlier served in London and is currently looking after Gulf affairs. He hit headlines last year when his name cropped up in an FIR of alleged corruption registered by then CBI chief Alok Verma against his own deputy Rakesh Asthana. The case is still being investigated by the CBI.

Two separate government orders on Wednesday said Goel is being appointed as new Secretary, R&AW, with effect from June 29, when Dhasmana’s tenure comes to an end. Kumar will replace Jain as the IB chief on June 30, when the latter’s tenure comes to an end.

Goel, who has been credited with counter-intelligence work against Khalistani forces during his stint in London, has superseded R Kumar, the seniormost officer in R&AW currently. Kumar, who heads the Pakistan desk, is largely credited in the security establishment for making the Balakot strikes post the Pulwama attacks a success. Sources say it was his pinpointed intelligence that helped the Air Force launch a surgical strike deep inside Pakistan.

Goel’s appointment also comes in the backdrop of a longstanding tussle between IPS officers and Research and Analysis Service (RAS) cadre officers for top posts within the R&AW. Goel’s appointment continues the tradition of IPS officers taking the top post in R&AW. Kumar, meanwhile, joins the long list of inbred career intelligence officers being ignored for the job of leading the agency.

Since 2007, no non-IPS officer has taken the top post in R&AW — a tradition much criticised by veteran intelligence officials as it robs the agency of its multi-disciplinary vitality. Established in 1968, R&AW used to initially take officers directly from universities or from varied professions and trained them to be full-time intelligence officials. It also took officers from various Group A services including IAS, IPS, IFS and IRS apart from journalists and scientists. It used to conduct its own exams and interviews. The people so chosen served it well in 1971 war when India defeated Pakistan.

However, as issues of determining seniority for promotions began to dog it, RAS was created where those who cleared UPSC could appear for RAS interviews and be absorbed in R&AW as lifetime intelligence sleuths. Many of them, such as Vikram Sood, rose to become chief of the agency. An officer of Indian Postal Services, Sood headed the agency between 2000 and 2003 during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee regime.